David was able to receive his 4th round of chemo treatment today. Bloodwork results last week showed that his white blood cells (WBCs) were slightly less affected when the Gemcitabine dose was reduced by 20%, so today he received another reduced dose. Not sure that the reduction in dose will allow David to have any consecutive week treatments, but we think this is what his oncologist is hoping to achieve. At any rate, he has 4 treatments down & 5 left to go!
We did see a gastroenterologist last week to see if he might have any strategies to help David's overall gut issues & to maximize his food absorption. Based on David's lab work & the fact that he has been able to maintain his weight since discontinuing the IV nutrition, he felt that David's nutrition & absorption of what he is eating is adequate. Unfortunately, he didn't have any new ideas to quiet David's overactive gut, but he at least reinforced that we are doing all we can to manage that problem. Like us, he is hopeful that when David completes the chemotherapy, we will find that his gut is much happier. David has been able to successfully add a few new food items to his diet, which helps to break up the monotony of what he eats every day.
David has been very disciplined about getting some exercise every day, which is so important for his overall well being. Every morning he will either jog, bike, or walk at a fast clip intermixed with some rest periods as he is still quite anemic & gets winded much easier than he did before treatment. He is also doing a few core exercises & light weights to try to build some muscle mass & gain his strength back. He has been reading some books & watching some sitcoms & funny movies for enjoyment. We've not been spending time with family or friends at this point because David is often immunosuppressed, but once the chemo treatments are completed, we hope to catch up with everyone.
Daylight savings time begins on Sunday, which means Spring is just around the corner. To us here in Southern California, Spring is not such a big deal, but to those of you in the Midwest & East Coast, I know you will rejoice in having Spring arrive!! Much love to you all, Janet
Great news! Progress, progress, progress! March this year is very atypical in Fort Worth...sub freezing temps, snow and ice! More like Indiana than Texas. Hope to reconnect sometime in the near future, perhaps when I'm in CA for business next time. John and Cathy
ReplyDeleteIf pizza is one those foods you can tolerate, why do you need anything else???
ReplyDeleteAmazing you're still working out during all this.
Rich & Gladys
David & Janet--we follow your blog and think of you so often. We continue to pray for both of you. It sounds like you are a real fighter. We hope you will continue to gain your strength back and we hope to see you in Spring Creek this summer.
ReplyDeleteLometa & Chuck Jennings